Liberals for Gun Rights?

I almost fell off my chair yesterday 6/23 when I read an oped by James Hill, the politics editor at the left wing Detroit Free Press titled “Why I Carry: why having a firearm is like having insurance.” This is strangely unlike the usual editorial policy of the Freep. Normally the paper is teeming with editorials, opeds and LTEs calling for more gun control, a euphemism for people control. But this article was well written even pointing out that just carrying is not enough; that one needs to practice and train often especially with a professional trainer. He’s also right about the fact that we buy insurance for our houses, cars and other belongings hoping we never have to use it. So it is with guns. We carry hoping we never have to use it.

But Mr. Hill focuses exclusively on the practical argument leaving the moral argument for the gun banner advocates to seize and use against him. I wish he would have tied his practical argument to the moral principle of individual rights in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. So I fired off this letter to the editor:

“Like Mr. Hill I too carry a firearm for insurance reasons, to insure that I have at least a chance to defend my life if needed. The Supreme Court has ruled that it is not the job of police to protect citizens from criminals but to apprehend them after the fact. That’s why our founders established individual rights and the Second Amendment as our founding principle. They understood that if the individual is to have a right to life then it logically follows that he must have the right to defend it and that to deny the right of self defense is an immoral act.”

I don’t know if it’ll get printed but stranger things are happening. I signed it Mike in Roseville. Also, this supports an idea I had about how gun control will not happen for a while because a lot of Democrats, liberals and leftists see the value in self defense.

National Security Workforce to Address ‘Intersectionality’: do you ever get the sense that you’re in a waking nightmare? Money quote from the memo: “Our greatest asset in protecting the homeland and advancing our interests abroad is the talent and diversity of our national security workforce.”

Last Week Tonight on Donald Trump: bit long, but great takedown of the Trump mythos. In a more rational political environment, this would have killed his presidential campaign. I’m not sure it’ll make any difference.

A Responsibility I Take Seriously: nominee must be “without any particular ideology or agenda” and have “a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook.” I sure hope the Republicans can hold the line on his nominations.

Trigger Warnings in Annapolis: I’m not sure why I expected the service academies to be bastions of academic freedom, but I did. It’s much worse than the universities since they’re far more hierarchical.

Announcing the Twitter Trust & Safety Council: this is within their rights, of course. Given the leftist leanings of the company and its assembled Council of Goodspeech, I suspect that some groups will get a pass and some will face suppression. Chilling at any rate.